GM to make India base for diesel engine manufacturing

General Motors, the auto titan of the United States, looking at the rich demand of diesel vehicles in the Indian car market is planning on the development of diesel engines for its vehicles that have been lined up for launch in India.  The company plans to utilize the Indian based diesel capability at Talegaon in Maharashtra for other diesel-intensive markets around the globe too. The diesel variant of the company’s favored hatchback Chevrolet Beat has been traversing Indian roads since the mid of last year. The company is now planning to render a diesel engine to its premium hatchback Chevrolet Sail and also to the new MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) that is lined for launch later this year. General Motors has used the diesel engine technology developed in India for its vehicles and will later release this technology in the markets of North and South Africa in the beginning.

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The President and Managing Director of General Motors India - Lowell Paddock stated that markets outside India are showing a great deal of interest in the diesel engines and the company is looking forward to cater to these needs. He added that the company expects the technology being used in the upcoming Sail hatchback and the new MPV to support entry in the markets outside India too. He also mentioned that no final decision has been taken on the locations where this technology will be offered but the company prefers North and South Africa for the initiation. The 1.0liter diesel engine, which is the smallest engine being used by the company is housed in the Chevrolet Beat and is manufactured exclusively in India. However, the decision on the exclusive development of the diesel engines for the new Sail and MPV in India is still pending. The company has a technical centre in Bangalore with 2100 employees and is responsible for the development of capability for the diesel engines.

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The Bangalore centre also undertakes the global level engineering work of the company along with orienting vehicles for the Indian car market. The company has a total of five engineering centers, four design centers and nine satellite research and development facilities within the General Motors International Operations. On the subject of the development of the company’s Indian capability the Vice-President of corporate affairs P Balendran mentioned that in the present scenario the 42-45 percent of sales from the total passenger vehicles is constituted by the diesel vehicles. And the 80 percent of the total cars sales come from its diesel variants which is also true in case of Beat diesel variant whose sales went up from 40% to 80%. As per the estimates of the auto industry the diesel variant hold a proud figure of 28% of the total passenger cars sold in the last financial year. This is expected to have happened because of the fact that petrol prices have rocketed since April 2010; the difference between the petrol and diesel prices has increased from Rs 10 to Rs. 25.51 since then. This increase in the difference is the major catalyst to the surge in the demand of diesel cars.

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